hog island

yesterday after a rather intense weights workout, hops and i went to tomales bay to meet the Captain and his sister+husband at the Hog Island Oyster Company.

I've never really had oysters before, but now I really have.

The Captain apparently forgot we were joining him and arrived 30 minutes late, after I'd had a full batch of oysters and already decided that I didn't really like oysters. Then I had some more and I guess I do. I'm not an oyster nut by any means.

We lit a charcoal fire and "grilled" (steamed, really) some oysters and some clams. I most definitely am a fan of clams, and those had to be the best I've ever had.

By the end of our visit, I'd had two differnet kinds of oysters ("small" and Kumamoto) dozens of different ways, with hot sauce, with bbq sauce, with lemon, raw, cooked. i actually do like the Kumamoto, raw, cooked, with or without hot sauce. the small, not so much. clams, yum.

anyhow, I don't feel like a big long description of the day, so suffice to saw we saw sheep on the way:

After we were done there, we headed into point reyes station and located the Cowgirl Creamery to see, as The Captain's bro-in-law said, "some chesbians". There were definitely many friendly chesbians, and they gave us lots of samples, and we bought more cheese than we really need, particularly considering that most of what we got is available at our local grocery. Anyhow, the fresh chevre is *not* available locally, so there we go.

After this it was on to pt reyes lighthouse, which is at the end of a rather long bit of coast:

Home to interesting erosion formations:

as promised, a lighthouse:

the lighthouse was closed by the time we got there and we couldn't go in. i urged hops to use her connections to get us a tour but she really hasn't got any, so no tour for us. she couldn't tell us where any of the roads led or what any of the sites were, but she could point out where all the park's contraband was hidden.

literally moments after hops proclaimed, during our departure drive, that she didn't have to look out for cows in the road because they were all fenced in, we encountered:

cows in the road.

The Captain unwisely decided not to join us for dinner. I suspect he'd been misinformed as to the nature of the Avatar's restaurant we were visiting. He'd heard of the same-owner, same-name Burrito Shop in mill valley. We were going to the original and most awesome Avatar's in Sausalito:

samosas and free paratha.

that's my jamaican jerk chicken enchilada with indian chutney sauce. or is it hop's fresh dungeness crab enchilada with indian chutney sauce?

both were superb, as usual. the crab was really of this world in the context of an indian enchilada, and the jerk chicken was great too.

hops enjoying herself:

for dessert, Avatar's Dream:

the eponymous Avatar is long passed, sadly, but his dream lives on. some kind of ice cream cake with pistachio topping and mango/strawberry sauce. delicious!

after that we got stuck on hte GG bridge for about half an hour as an accident was cleared. i fell asleep as soon as we got home.